SolvedHigh CPU Usage by ntoskrnl.exe

New Member

I have a Lenovo Y580 and have been experiencing high CPU usage by the system process. I used Process Explorer and found that ntoskrnl.exe was the cause. The laptop occasionally freezes up and crashes to a DPC Watchdog Violation BSOD as well. I'm not sure how to go about troubleshooting this problem so any help would be appreciated.

My Computer

Mr. Cranky Pants

ntoskrnl.exe is the kernel (core) of the Windows operating system. As such, if it were to blame, you'd be experiencing more problems than just the occasional BSOD. The ntoskrnl.exe file (along with many others, is a protected operating system file - so it's much, much less likely to get corrupted than other files.

In most cases this sort of error is caused by another driver writing to a memory space that is owned by ntoskrnl.exe. When ntoskrnl.exe sees unexpected stuff in it's memory space, it panics and throws up a BSOD.

This looks to be a hardware or compatibility problem with your video card. To be sure, please run Driver Verifier according to these directions: Driver Verifier Settings

Also, please do the following (to help rule out the video drivers):
- download a fresh copy of the latest, Win8.1 compatible video drivers from the manufacturer's website
- uninstall your current video drivers
- install the freshly downloaded video drivers
- monitor for further BSOD's

If this doesn't stop the BSOD's, then please run these free hardware diagnostics (start with the video tests - but please complete each of the 7 sets of tests): Hardware Diagnostics

Please remove the Logitech GamePanel software as it has been known to cause problems with Windows systems. Feel free to reinstall the latest, Win8.1 compatible version once the system has been stabilized.

Please note the drivers below that date from before the release of Windows 8.1 (17 Oct 2013) - check to see that each and every one is compatible w/Windows 8.1 (at the manufacturer's website). If not, you must either remove the device and it's software - or locate a Windows 8.1 compatible update on the web. Removing some drivers may make the system unstable - so if you're unable to find updates, post back for info on the one's that can/cannot be safely removed.

The drivers that are [DEL]struckout[/DEL] don't have updates available (AFAIK).DO NOT delete them, just leave them be.

My Computer

Mr. Cranky Pants

Your UEFI/BIOS dates from 2012. Please check at the manufacturer's website to see if there are any UEFI/BIOS updates available for your system. Also check the readme file to see if they apply to the problems that you are having. Please be advised that flashing the UEFI/BIOS is a very unforgiving process - and one mistake can physically damage your motherboard. If possible, use the "inside Windows" flash mechanism (if your OEM provides one) - that is much more forgiving than the traditional (floppy drive) flash method.

This device needs to have drivers installed:

Generic USB Hub USB\VID_8086&PID_1111\1&30D1A4CF&0&0001 This device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device.

My Computer

Mr. Cranky Pants

The BIOS update isn't labelled correctly (IMO). The BIOS on your computer appears older than the BIOS's on the Lenovo website, but it has a later version number. The driver on the Lenovo site has a later release date. Don't try it, as it's possible to damage the motherboard if you flash using an incorrect BIOS.

The Intel® Intersil PRISM 2.5 (PRO Wireless 2011B) is no longer supported by Intel, so there aren't any drivers that have been released for Win8.1. Again, there's a bit of confusion on the Lenovo site and they state that the wireless drivers are available inside of Windows (try checking Windows Update for more recent wireless drivers).

Download and install the Windows 8.1 compatible Intel and nVidia video drivers from the Lenovo website. They're easy to find if you select the 8.1 option in the OS dropdown box on the download page.

If the system is still BSOD'ing, please zip up and upload the contents of C:\Windows\Minidump. You may have to copy it to your desktop in order to zip it up.

New Member

Alright, so I've been trying a few of the things you've suggested and have had no luck so far. I'll list the things I've tried recently:

-completely unistalled nvidia drivers and software and reinstalled an earlier version, computer froze up with high cpu usage by system
-installed latest nvidia drivers, still froze up but now went to a BSOD (DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION)
-installed latest drivers from Intel, this included a graphics driver and wireless drivers, still getting BSODs
-looked for the Intel / Intersil PRISM drivers stated above, couldn't find anything

I guess I'm not sure what else to do. I know you said the BIOS update may have been labelled incorrectly, but do you think just downgrading to Windows 7 and installing the new BIOS may solve the issue?

My Computer

Mr. Cranky Pants

Here's some suggestions on how to do a clean install of Win7: Canned Speeches
If you want to try that, it should be more stable than the Win8/8.1 installation.
In the event of a hardware problem, the problem will still be there after a clean install - so that will help to diagnose it.

New Member

Ok, I thought I should update this post since it's been a couple weeks. I installed Windows 7 and completely updated all my drivers. Then I went to update my BIOS only to find out it was indeed labelled incorrectly. Still, I waited a few days to see if the BSODs persisted and lo and behold, more crashing. This time the error message was an irql not less or equal error which traced back to my nvidia driver. At this point I'm thinking I might just have faulty hardware. One interesting thing I found however was that I only crashed while plugged into the AC adapter. I'm not sure if this is relevant but maybe my GPU isn't receiving a steady supply of power?

New Member

Temps look good before the crashes. It's a laptop so it runs a bit hot but nothing went over 65 C before the crahses. If it is a problem with my GPU how would I go about fixing it? I know that the video card is on the motherboard itself so I would I have to replace the entire thing?

New Member

Alright, luckily I didn't have to replace the motherboard. I found a relatively easy fix which and haven't crashed in about a week or so. Using MSI Afterburner I was able to lock the clock speeds of my GPU to the 3D clocks. Before launching a game I just run Afterburner for a minute or so and then boot up a game. I'm not sure if my GPU couldn't throttle itself to full speed or what it was, but if I manually set the clock speeds it doesn't crash. Thanks for all the help, I really appreciate it.